So why is the U.S. so dominant in the sport over the last several years?

“I really think it’s because we want it more. And we’ve been bringing the youth along with us,” Hancock said. …

Hancock said the elite American shooters set a standard that brings up the competitive level of all shooters. “I’ve been shooting high scores for eight or nine years now. When I first started out, a 192 out of 200 in a local competition would win it. Now, it’s barely making the final,” he said.

“With Kim and I shooting these extremely high scores, it’s making everyone else shoot harder, and be more proficient and hit more targets. And that’s making us shoot even harder. Kim and I know that if we slip up, we’re going to lose.”

He also had a message that will hopefully convince some more folks to give shooting a try:

“There is nothing dangerous about what we do here, at any level. The biggest thing that we preach is safety first.”

Hancock believes shooting is one of the safest sports for competitors of any responsible age.

“I always tell a joke out there that we have less injuries than table tennis,” he said.

And if you think his outreach for the sport doesn’t help win us a few more hearts and (eventually, hopefully, minds), then you’re wrong:

Sometimes, that message is as simple as exposure to the sport. Hancock recalled one journalist about five years ago whose opinion was quickly altered after a day on the range.

“She was extremely anti-gun. But I talked her into trying it,” he said. “And once she hit some targets, you couldn’t take her off the field.”

We’re winning. We just need to keep up the work to expose more people to the positive aspects of gun ownership. We need to keep showing them why the gun range is a cool place to be instead of the non-existent and far less cool “anti-gun range.”